Tropes (lexical stylistic devices) and figures of

speech (syntactic stylistic devices)

5.1.1. Tropes Based on the Interaction

of Different Types of Lexical Meanings

METAPHOR is a trope, which means transference of some quality from one object to
another.
There are three types of transference in metaphor:
1. Transference of the name of one object to another
E.g. …he said, blasting the ball into the wintry skeleton of the rose bushes. /Tony Parson Man and Boy/
(= the rose bushes were leafless because of winter time) [44]
E.g. Horrified, she stared down into the darkness, waiting for the ocean of beetles to close over her. /Dean
Koontz Whispers/ (= there were a great deal of beetles around her) [40]
2. Transference of the name of the action
E.g. “I wish you’d let go of me, Myra. Your hands are positively running with sweat.” /Stephen King
Needful Things/ (= her hands were very sweaty) [31]
E.g. The minutes snailed by. /J. Rowling Harry Porter and The Chamber of Secrets/ (= time went very
slowly) [48]
3. Transference of the typical features of one thing to another
E.g. Hooked to Fig’s belt was a radio – his ever-present electronic IV bottle. /Dean Koontz False
Memory/ (= the radio was an indispensable part of fig’s life) [37]

Personification is a kind of metaphor which provides a thing or phenomenon with features

typical of a human being.
E.g. The ocean roared and pushed him close to shore. /John Lutz Blood Fire/ [43]
 Metaphors, like all stylistic devices, can be classified according to their degree of
unexpectedness. Thus, metaphors which are absolutely unexpected (quite unpredictable) are
called genuine (or poetic); while those which are commonly used in speech and therefore
fixed in dictionaries, are called trite (or dead) [4, p.141].
Trite metaphors are sometimes filled with new vigour. This is done by supplying the
central image created by the metaphor with additional words, bearing some reference to the
main word. Such metaphors are called sustained (or prolonged/ extended)[4, p.142; 5, p.53].
Thus one should distinguish between a simple (or elementary) and a sustained metaphors.

E.g. Mr. Pickwick bottled up his vengeance and corked it down. /Ch. Dickens Pickwick Papers/ [4]
The verb to bottle up is explained in dictionaries as follows: “to keep in check”, “to
conceal, to restrain”. The metaphor in the word can hardly be felt, but it is revived by the
direct meaning of the verb to cork down/.

E.g. Joshua hadn’t plunged into full retirement yet, but he sat on the edge of it a lot, dangling his legs in a
big pool of leisure time that he wished he had found and used his wife Cora was still alive. /Dean Koontz
Whispers/ [40]
The principal metaphor may be called the central image of the sustained metaphor and
the other words that bear reference to the central image – contributory images. Thus in the
example given the word retirement is the central image, while its contributory images are
hadn’t plunged, sat on the edge of it and pool of leisure time.
Metaphor is usually expressed by verbs, nouns, adverbs, etc.

METONYMY is a trope based not on identification, but on some kind of association

connecting the two concepts, which these two meanings represent.
There are several types of association in metonymy:
1. The name of the container stands for the name of the thing contained:
 E.g. She was the only Asian girl in the house. There were a few black women in here but mostly the girls
were blondes, either by birth or bottle. /Tony Parson Man and Boy/ (of hair bleach) [44]
2. The name of the material stands for the name of the thing made of it:
E.g. Clown paintings and Rodeo Drive oils of rainy Paris street scenes said all talent should not be
encouraged. /J. Kellerman The Clinic/ (pictures executed in oil) [25]
3. The name of the creator stands for the name of the thing made by him (also called
“metonymic antonomasia”):
E.g. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought it was a Modigliani, a portrait of a girl’s face. /James Herbert Others/
(a picture made by this painter) [23]
4. The name of the symbol stands for the name of the thing symbolized:
E.g. Then Cruvic saw the press and said something to the uniforms. /Jonathan Kellerman The Clinic/
(the policemen) [25]
E.g. As the cops held the microphones at bay, Cruvic jogged, head down, to his car. /Jonathan Kellerman
The Clinic/ (the journalists) [25]
5. The name of the instrument stands for the name of the action it performs:
E.g. Well, Mr. Weller, you’re a good whip and can do what you like with your horses. /Ch. Dickens
Pickwick Papers/ [4]
6. The name of the concrete thing stands for the name of an abstract notion:
E.g. This particular mayor was invested with chain almost immediately. /A. Bennett The Heroism of
Thomas Chadwick/ (he was elected Mayor) [1]
E.g. “I needed a hug too.”
“You did?”
“Everyone could use a teddy bear now and then.”
/Dean Koontz The Servants of Twilight/ (everyone needs sympathy and comforting) [38]
7. The name of the part stands for the whole, and vice versa (also called “synecdoche”):
E.g. The compassionate eyes seemed to watch me as I crossed the room. /James Herbert Others/ (a person
watched him) [23]
E.g. A small shudder, a little wince of obvious pain were all it took to still curious tongues. /Vera Cowie
Face Value/ (people who gossiped about her) [13]
8. The quality of a person/ an object stands for the person himself/object itself:
 E.g. Inside was a waiting room full of perfect-body hopefuls of both sexes, fantasizing about fame and
fortune. /Jonathan Kellerman The Clinic/ (actors who were hopeful to be given a part in the film) [25]

Metonymy is usually expressed by nouns. It differs from metaphor in the way it is decoded.
In metaphor one image excludes the other, while in metonymy it does not; moreover, there is
an objectively existing relationship between the object named and the object implied. [5, p.
54]

IRONY is a stylistic device based on the simultaneous realization of two logical meanings –
dictionary and contextual, which stand in opposition to each other.
E.g. It must be delightful to find oneself in a foreign country without a penny in one’s pocket. [4]
The word delightful acquires the meaning quite the opposite to its primary dictionary
meaning, i.e. “unpleasant”, “not delightful”. The word containing irony is strongly marked
by intonation.
Irony must not be confused with humour, although they have very much in common.
Humour always causes laughter. What is funny must come as a sudden clash of the positive
and the negative. In this respect irony is similar to humour, but irony is used to express a
feeling of irritation, displeasure, pity, regret, etc. [4, p.147]
Cf.: E.g. At Breakfast Christine asked her son: “How about cereal and peanut butter toast? … Or I could put
one of your old shoes in the microwave and cook it up nice and tender for you. How about that? Nothing
is quite as tasty as an old shoe for breakfast. Mmmmmmm! Really sticks to your ribs!” /Dean Koontz
The Servants of Twilight/ (humour) [38]
E.g. “Isn’t she a gem?”
“A miracle worker,” Lou said. “It’s a miracle when she works.” /Dean Koontz The Vision/ (irony)
[39]
Bitter socially or politically aimed irony is called sarcasm.
E.g. “Well,” I said, “isn’t the husband always the first suspect? Though stabbing her out on the street doesn’t
sound typical.”
 “True.” He rubbed his eyes. “Braining her in the bedroom would have been more marital.” /Jonathan
Kellerman The Clinic/ [25]

ZEUGMA is the use of a word in the same grammatical but different semantic relations to
two adjacent words in the context. The two meanings of the word are realized in the context
without the repetition of this word. It is often used in poetry and emotive prose. [4, p.150]
E.g. Just then, a door on the second landing opened, and a face poked out wearing horn-rimmed glasses and
a very annoyed expression. /J.K. Rowling Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire/ [49]
E.g. Когда она звонит кому-либо по телефону, я тут же выхожу из комнаты и из себя.

PUN is another stylistic device based on the interaction of two well-known meanings of а
word or phrase. It aims at a humourous effect and is used in jokes, riddles, etc. It has much
in common with zeugma, but it differs from it in its structure. Zeugma is the realization of
the verb which refers to different subjects or objects, while pun is more independent. [4,
p.151] It can, for example, be based on:
1. The play upon words with the same spelling and sounding, but different meaning
E.g. Army doctor: «Do you have any physical defects?»
In ductee; «Yes, no guts.» [6]
2. The play upon homophones (sound alike, but different in spelling and meaning)
E.g. «The storm caused a whole lot of damage»
«A hole lot of what?» [6]
3. The play upon mix of phrase and their word-components
E.g. There are only two political groups after the election, the appointed and the disappointed.
E.g. Father: «Are there half-fares for children?»
Conductor: «Yes, under fourteen.»
Father: «That's all right. I have only five.» [6]

THE EPITHET is a stylistic device based on the interplay of logical and emotive meanings
in an attributive word, phrase or even sentence used to characterize an object (both existing
and imaginary) [4; p. 157]. It aims at individual perception and evaluation, imposing on the
reader the subjective attitude of the writer/speaker to the thing described. Epithets may be
classified semantically and structurally.
Semantically, epithets are divided into:
• Associated (those which point to a feature which essential to the object they describe, i.e
the idea expressed by the epithet is inherent in the concept of the object)
E.g. dark forest; careful attention; fantastic terrors.
• Unassociated (they are used to characterize the object by adding a feature not inherent in
it).
E.g. A heart-burning smile; sullen earth; voiceless sands [4]

Structurally, epithets are divided into [4]:

• Single:
E.g. He just stared at her with those gas flame-blue eyes. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/
(of a very bright blue colour) [34]
• Two-step (i.e. adverb + adjective):
E.g. a stone cold dead trail /James Herbert Others/ [23]
• Phrase (i.e. a group of hyphonated words):
E.g. Jim looked at me with a what-can-you-do? grin. /T. Parson Man and Boy/ [44]
• Reversed (or inverted) epithets (i.e. presented by of-phrases):
E.g. the melancholy mask of a bloodhound /Dean Koontz Whispers/ [40]
E.g. a big bruiser of a man /James Herbert Others/ [23]

OXYMORON is a combination of two words (mostly an adiective and a noun or an adverb

with an adjective) in which the meanings of the two clash, being opposite in sense.
E.g. low skyscrapers; sweet sorrow; a pleasantly ugly face. [4]
Oxymoron helps to emphasize contradictory qualities as a unity in the described
phenomenon. [4, p.162]
E.g. The flight engineer was paging through a manual, a look of quiet desperation on his face. /Dean Koontz
Cold Fire/ [34]

ANTONOMASIA helps to single out one definite object out of a whole class of similar
objects. It is a trope in which a Proper name is used instead of a Common noun or vice versa.
[5, p.54] Here the nominal meaning of a Proper name is hardly perceived, because its logical
meaning is too strong or the logical meaning is suppressed by the nominal component. [4,
164]
E.g. “Thank you, Mr. Dismas,” she said in a breathless, Marilyn Monroe way. /James Herbert Others/ (a
proper name) [23]
E.g. “Listen to you, Mr. Amateur Magician, sounding like a Puritan. I love it!” /Stephen King Needful
Things/ (a common noun) [31]
Antonomasia stresses the most characteristic feature of a person. It is also represented by
‘speaking names’, whose origin from common nouns is clearly perceived:
E.g. Mr. Right /from the film Witches of Eastwick/; Charles Surface /R.B. Sheridan School for Scandal/

5.1.2. Tropes based on the Intensification

of a Certain Feature of a Thing or Phenomenon

SIMILE is a stylistic device based on a deliberate comparison of two objects, belonging to

two different classes. This trope is easy to recognize because of the form words, used to
connect the compared objects: ‘like’, ‘as though’, ’as if’, ‘as…as’, ‘such as’, ‘seem’, etc. [4,
p. 167; 5, p. 51]
E.g. She walked over to the girl in the chair and nudged her gently. The girl sat up like a startled rabbit. /J.
Collins Sinners/ [12]
PERIPHRASIS is a SD based on the usage of a round-about way of expression instead of a
simpler one. It is used when the name of a person or thing is substituted by a descriptive
phrase [5, p. 56]. There are two types of periphrasis [4, p. 169]:
• Figurative (metaphoric or metonymic)
• Logical (the whole phrases synonymous with the word meant)
E.g. the cap and gown /student/; the better sex /woman/; a gentleman of the long robe /a lawyer/ [4]

Euphemism is a variety of periphrasis. It is a word or phrase used to replace an unpleasant

word or expression by a conventionally more acceptable one. For instance, instead of the
word ‘to die’ people prefer to say: to pass away, to expire, to be no more, to depart, to join
the majority, to be gone, etc. Euphemisms aim at producing a deliberately mild effect.
Euphemisms may be divided into several groups according to their sphere of application:
1) religious, 2) moral, 3) medical, 4) parliamentary.
The life of euphemisms is short, because they very soon become closely associated with the
object they represent, and give way to new words [4, p.173].

HYPERBOLE is a deliberate exaggeration of a feature essential to the object or

phenomenon. It is characteristic of every day speech, used as a signal of roused emotions [4,
p. 176].
E.g. “And what am I?” “The Kind of person who […] always cries buckets at even slightly sad movies.”
/Dean Koontz The Vision/ [39]
There are words, which are used in Hyperbole oftener than others: ‘all’, ‘every’, ‘everybody’,
a million’, ‘a thousand’, ‘ever’, ‘never’, etc.
E.g. I told him this hundreds of times!

Understatement is a trope aimed at deliberate belittling

E.g. he had reddish hair
 5.1.3. Tropes Based on
Peculiar Use of Set Expressions

A cliché is an expression that has become hackneyed and trite [4, p. 177].
E.g. rosy dreams of youth [4]

PROVERBS and SAYINGS are facts of language. They are brief statements showing in
condensed form the accumulated life experience of the community and serving as
conventional practical symbol for abstract ideas They are collected in special dictionaries. [4,
p. 181]
E.g. Out of sight, out of mind.

An EPIGRAM is a stylistic device similar to a proverb; but they are made by individuals
whose names we know, while proverbs are invented by people in general [4, p. 184].
E.g. A thing of beauty is a joy forever. (Keats) [4]

A QUOTATION is an exact repetition of a phrase or statement from a book, speech, and the
like used by way of illustration. By repeating a passage in a new environment we attach more
importance to the utterance. Quotations are usually marked off in the text by inverted commas
(‘…’), dashes (-) or italics [4, P. 186].

An ALLUSION is an indirect reference, by word or phrase, to a historical, literary,

mythological, biblical fact or to a fact of everyday life made in the course of speaking or
writing. It differs from quotation, because it does not need to repeat the exact wording of the
original. An allusion is only a mention of a word or phrase that may be regarded as the key
word whose meaning is broadened into a general concept [4, p. 187].
E.g. Where is the road now, and its merry incidents of life!.. Old honest, pimple-nosed coachmen? […] Is
old Weller alive or dead? (Thackeray) /here the allusion is made to the coachman, Old Mr. Weller, the father
of Dickens’s famous character, Sam Weller/ [4]

DECOMPOSITION OF SET PHRASES deals with linguistic fusions (i.e. set phrases
whose meaning is understood only from the combination as a whole. E.g. to pull a person’s leg
= to make a joke at him). The stylistic device of decomposition of fused set phrases consists in
reviving the independent meanings, which make up the component parts of the fusion [4, p.
189].
E.g. I don’t mean to say that I know of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-
nail. (Dickens) /here we see decomposition of the phrase ‘as dead as a door-nail’/ [4]

5.2. Phonetic Expressive Means and Stylistic Devices

ONOMOTOPOEIA is a combination of speech-sounds which aims at imitating sounds

produced in nature (wind, sea, thunder, etc.), by things (machines and tools), by people
(singing, laughter, patter of feet, etc.) and by animals. Combinations of speech sounds of this
type will inevitably be associated with whatever produces the natural sound.
There are two types of onomatopoeia [4, 124]:
• Direct (which displays itself in words imitating natural sounds) The degree of imitation
may be different. Some words at once remind us of things producing sounds, others need
our efforts to be decoded.
E.g. ding-dong; buzz; bang, cuckoo; mew, etc.
• Indirect (is formed by sounds which make the utterance an echo of its sense). It reqires
the mention of the thing which is the source of the sound.
E.g. And the silken, sad, unsertain rustling of each purple curtain (E.A. Poe) [45]
ALLITERATION is a phonetic stylistic device which aims at imparting a melodic effect to
the utterance.. The essense of this SD lies in the repetition of similar sounds (consonant
sounds in particular) in close succession [4, 126].
E.g. Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. (E.A. Poe) [45]

RHYME is the repetition of identical or similar terminal sound combinations of words.

Rhyming words are generally placed at a regular distance from each other. In verse they are
usually placed at the end of the corresponding lines.
Rhyme may be of two types:
• Full rhymes (presupposes identity of the vowel sound and the following consonant sounds
in a stressed syllable).
E.g. might – right; needles – heedles, etc [4]
• Incomplete rhymes, which may be further divided into:
A) vowel rhymes (the vowels in corresponding words are identical, but the consonants
may be different)
E.g. flesh – fresh – press [4]
B) consonant rhymes (consonants are identical, but vowels are different)
E.g. worth – forth; tale – tool; Treble – trouble [4]

Modifications of rhyming sometimes go so far as to make one word rhyme with a

combination of words. Such rhymes are called compound or broken. The peculiarity of this
type is that the combination of words is made to sound like one word.
E.g. bottom – forgot'em – shot him [4]
Another modification of compound rhyme is eye-rhyme, where the letters and not the
sounds are identical.
E.g. love – prove; flood – brood [4]
 According to the way the rhymes are arranged within the stanza, certain models have
crystallized [4, 128-129]:
• couplets – when the last words of two successive lines are rhymed. This is commonly
marked aa
E.g. In the southern clime,
Where the summer's prime
Never fades away,
Lovely Lyca lay. /W. Blake/ [2]
• triple rhymes – aaa
E.g. Here the sledges with the bells –
Silver bells!
What a world of merriment their melody foretells! /Poe/ [45]
• cross rhymes – abab
E.g. Piping down the valleys wild,
Piping song of pleasant glee,
On a cloud I saw a child,
And he laughing said to me. /W. Blake/ [2]
• framing or ring rhymes – abba
E.g. Exhales on high;
The Sun is freed from fears,
And with soft grateful tears
Ascends the sky. /W. Blake/ [2]
• internal rhymes – the rhyming words are placed not at the end of the lines, but within the
lines
E.g. I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers. (Shelley) [4]
Once upon a midnight dreary while I pondered weak and weary. (Poe) [45]

RHYTHM exists in all spheres of human activity and has various forms. It is a deliberate
arrangement of speech into regularly recurring units intended to be grasped as a definite
periodicity which makes rhythm a SD. Rhythm, therefore, is the main factor which brings
order into the utterance. Rhythm reveals itself most conspicuously in music, dance and verse
[4].
Rhythm may also be very important in prose, bringing either speed or monotony to the
utterance. In the fragment below the rhythmic arrangement of words shows how fast the sails
of the windmill were turning:

E.g. In front of them, the sails of the windmill stuttered. They began to turn slowly, with much clattering
and creaking, shedding chunks and splinters of rotten vanes.
The speed of the sails increased.
Around, around, around-around-around, around-aroundaround. It turned like a haunted Ferris wheel in
a carnival of the damned. /Dean Koontz Cold Fire/ [34]

5.3. Figures of speech

The examination of syntax provides a deeper insight into the stylistic aspect of utterances.
I.R. Galperin groups all figures of speech according to:
1. Compositional patterns of syntactic arrangement
• Stylistic inversion
• Detached construction
• Parallel construction
• Chiasmus
• Repetition
• Suspense
• Climax (Gradation)
• Anticlimax
• Antithesis
2. Particular ways of combining parts of the utterance
• Asyndeton
• Polysyndeton
3. Particular use of colloquial constructions
• Ellipsis
• Break-in-the-narrative (Aposiopesis)
• Question-in-the-narrative
• Represented speech
4. Stylistic use of structural meaning
• Rhetorical question
• Litotes

STYLISTIC INVERSION is a figure of speech based on specific word order. It aims at

attaching logical stress or additional emotional colouring to the surface meaning of the
utterance. Therefore a specific intonation pattern is the inevitable element of inversion.
Stylistic inversion in Modern English should not be regarded as violation of Standard
English. It is only a practical realization of what is potential in the language itself [4, p. 204].
The following patterns of stylistic inversion are most frequently met in both English prose
and poetry:
• The object is placed at the beginning of the sentence.
E.g. Talent Mr. Micawber has; capital Mr. Micawber has not. /Dickens/
• The attribute is placed after the word it modifies. This model is often used when there is
more than one attribute.
E.g. With finger weary and worn... /Thomas Hood/ [4]
Once upon a midnight dreary... /E.A.Poe/ [4]
• a) The predicative is placed before the subject.
E.g. A good generous prayer it was. /Mark Twain/ [4]
b) The predicate stands before the link-verb and both are placed before the subject
E.g. Rude am I in my speech... /W.Shakespeare/ [4]
• The adverbial modifier is placed at the beginning of the sentence.
E.g. Eagerly I wished the morrow. /Poe/ [44]
My dearest daughter, at your feet I fall. /Dryden/ [4]
• Both modifier and predicate stand before the subject.
E.g. In went Mr. Pickwick. /Dickens/ [4]
Down dropped the breeze. /Coleridge/ [4]

These five models comprise the most common and recognized models of inversion. However,
in Modern English and American poetry there appears a definite tendency to experiment with
the word order to the extent, which may render the message unintelligible. In this case there
may be an almost unlimited number of rearrangements of the members of the sentence [4, p.
205].

DETACHED CONSTRUCTION is a stylistic device in which one of the secondary parts

of a sentence by some specific consideration of the writer is placed so that it seems formally
independent of the word it logically refers to.
Detached parts assume a greater degree of significance and are given prominence by
intonation. The most common cases of detached constructions are those in which an attribute
or an adverbial modifier is placed not with its immediate referent, but in some other position.
E.g. Sir Pitt came in first, very much flushed, and rather unsteady in his gait. /Thackeray/ [4]
The essential quality of detached constructions lies in the fact that the isolated parts represent a kind of
independent whole thrust into the sentence which will make the phrase seem independent. But this phrase
cannot become a primary member of the sentence [4, p. 206].
A variant of detached construction is parenthesis – a qualifying, explanatory or appositive
word, phrase, clause, sentence, etc. which interrupts a syntactic construction without
otherwise affecting it [4, p. 207].
E.g. June stood in front, fending off this idle curiosity - a little bit of a thing, as somebody said, ‘all hair and
spirit’. /Galsworthy/ [4]
Parenthesis separated from the rest of the utterance by dashes or brackets is called
insertion.
E.g. As a matter of fact, he was rather concerned about Marge – dear fat old Marge – who for so many years
had been simply content to squat in front of the television and eat. /Jeckie Collins Sinners/ 12]

PARALLEL CONSTRUCTION (or parallelism) is a figure of speech based upon a

recurrence of syntactically identical sequences that lexically are completely or partially
different [5, p. 58].
E.g. There were, [...], real silver spoons to stir the tea with, and real china cups to drink it out of, and plates
of the same to hold the cakes and toast in. /Dickens/ [4]
Partial parallel arrangement is the repetition of some part of successive sentences or
clauses.
E.g. Our senses perceive no extremes. Too much sound deafens us; too much light dazzles us; too great
distance or proximity hinders our view. [4]
Complete parallel arrangement, also called balance, is the repetition of identical structures
throughout the corresponding sentences [4, p. 208].
E.g. And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot. (Shakespeare) [4]

CHIASMUS (reversed parallel constructions) is a device based on the repetition of a

syntactic pattern of two successive sentences or parts of a sentence, in which the word-order
of one of the sentences is inverted as compared to that of the other.
E.g. I kissed her, she kissed back hard and passionate […] /Jonathan Kellerman The Web/ [26]
E.g. She seemed to care about him. And he certainly cared about her. /J. Collins Sinners/ [12]
 Chiasmus helps to lay stress on the second part of the utterance, which is opposed in
structure. Chiasmus can appear only when there are two successive or coordinate parts of a
sentence [4, p. 209].

REPETITION is an EMs based upon a repeated occurrence of one and the same word or
word-group [5, p. 59]. It is used when the speaker is under the stress of strong emotion.
E.g. «Stop!» - she cried. «Don’t tell me! I don’t want to hear; I don’t want to hear what you’ve come for. I
don’t want to hear.» [4]

Here repetition is not a stylistic device; it is a means by which the excited state of the speaker’s
mind is shown. As a figure of speech repetition aims at logical emphasis to fix the attention
of the reader on the key-word of the utterance [4, p.211].
E.g. For that was it! Ignorant of the long stealthy march of passion, and of the state of which it had reduced
Fleur; ignorant of how Soames had watched her, ignorant of Fleur’s reckless desperation...- ignorant of all
this, everybody felt aggrieved. /Galsworthy/ [4]
Repetition is classified according to compositional patterns [4, p. 212; 5, p. 59-60]:
• Anaphora - the repeated word comes at the beginning of two or more sentences. (e.g.
above)
• Epiphora - the repeated unit is placed at the end of the consecutive sentences.
E.g. I am exactly the man to be placed in a superior position in such a case as that. I am above the rest of
mankind, in such a case as that. I can act with philosophy in such a case as that. /Dickens/ [4]
• Framing - repetition arranged in the form of a frame: the initial parts of a syntactic unit, in
most cases of a paragraph, are repeated at the end of it.
E.g. Poor doll’s dressmaker! How often so dragged down by hands that should have raised her up; how
often so misdirected when losing her way on the eternal road and asking guidance. Poor, little doll’s
dressmaker. /Dickens/ [4]
• Anadiplosis (or linking, or catch repetition) - the last word or phrase of one part of an
utterance is repeated at the beginning of the next part, thus hooking the two parts together.
 E.g. Freeman and slave... carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time
ended, either in a revolutionary re-constitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending
classes. /Marx, Engels/ [4]
• Chain-repetition - the catch repetition used several times.
E.g. A smile would come into Mr. Pickwick’s face: the smile extended into a laugh: the laugh into a roar,
and the roar became general. /Dickens/ [4]

ENUMERATION is a stylistic device by which separate things, objects, phenomena,

actions, etc. are named one by one so that they produce a chain of homogeneous parts of
speech. Enumeration as a SD has no continuous existence in their manifestation. Sometimes
the grouping of absolutely heterogeneous notions occur only in isolated instances to meet
some peculiar purpose of the writer [4, p. 216].
E.g. There Harold gazed on a work divine,
A blending of all beauties: stream and dells,
Fruit, foliage, crag, wood, cornfield, mountain, vine
And chiefless castles breathing stern farewells
From grey but leafy walls, where Ruin greenly dwells. (Byron) [4]
There is hardly anything in this enumeration that could be regarded as making some extra
impact on the reader: each word is closely connected with the following and the preceding
ones, and the effect is what the reader associates with natural scenery. The following example
is different [4, p. 217]:
E.g. Scrooge was his sole executor, his sole administrator, his sole assign, his sole residuary legatee, his
sole friend and his sole mourner. (Dickens) [4]
The enumeration here is heterogeneous; the legal terms placed in a string together with such
words as ‘friend’ and ‘mourner’ result in a kind of clash, a thing typical of any SD.

SUSPENSE is a compositional device which consists in arranging the matter of a

communication so that the less important, descriptive, subordinate parts are amasses at the
beginning, while the main idea is withheld till the end of the sentence. Thus the reader’s
attention is held and his interest kept up:
E.g. Mankind, says a Chinese manuscript, which my friend M. Was obliging enough to read and explain to
me, for the first seventy thousand ages ate their meat raw. /Charles Lamb/ [4]
The function of suspense is to keep the reader in a state of uncertainty, expectation and
emotional tension. Suspense always requires long stretches of speech or writing, but the main
purpose is to prepare the reader for the only logical conclusion of the utterance [4, p. 218].
E.g. in front of the right-hand passage was an awkward-looking, red-carpeted, with an oiled banister, all right
angles, no curves – staircase. /J. Kellerman The Web/ [26]

Note: Suspense may function on macro-level as well, affecting the plot development. For
instance, in the novel The Singing Stones by Phyllis A. Whitney [57] the authoress resorts to
suspense in the last paragraph of the prologue:
E.g. We gathered up our things and started down to the road where Stephen had left his car. No premonition
of any sort touched me as we ran to the car, my hand in Stephens. No warning reached me that it would be
twelve years before I ever climbed this hill again. /Whitney The Singing Stones/
Naturally we expect to know what happened to the newly wed heroine and why it took
her twelve years to come back to the house she was supposed to settle in; but our interest and
expectations are kept in suspense, because the next chapter conveys only the events, which
took place after that twelve-year period.

CLIMAX (GRADATION) is an arrangement of sentences (or of homogeneous parts of one

sentence), in which each next sequence is either emotionally stronger or logically more
important [5, p. 61]:
E.g. It was a lovely city, a beautiful city, a fair city, a veritable gem of a city. [4]
E.g. All this was her property, her delight, her life.[4]
A gradual increase in significance may be maintained in three ways [4, p. 220-221]:
logical, emotional and quantitative.
 Logical climax is based on the relative importance of the component parts considered from
the viewpoint of the concepts embodied in them:
E.g. Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, “My dear Scrooge, how are you?
When will you come to see me?” No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it
was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge.
Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him, and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners
into doorways […]; and then wag their tails, as though they said, “No eye at all is better than an evil eye,
dark master!”(Dickens Christmas Carol) [4]
Emotional climax is based on the relative emotional tension produced by words with
emotive meaning:
E.g. He was pleased when the child began to adventure across floors on hands and knees; he was gratified,
when she managed the trick of balancing herself on two legs; he was delighted when she first said ‘tata’; and
he was rejoiced when she recognized him and smiled at him. /Alan Paton/ [4]
Quantitative climax is an increase in the volume of the corresponding concepts:
E.g. They looked at hundreds of houses; they climbed thousands of stairs; they inspected innumerable
kitchens. /Maugham/ [4]

ANTICLIMAX is the reverse of climax [5, p. 61]. It is such an arrangement of ideas, in

which there is a gradual increase in significance, but the final idea (which the reader expects
to be the culminating one, like in climax) is trifling or farcical; i.e. it is a sudden drop from
the serious to the ridiculous [4, p. 221]:
E.g. It was absurd, scandalous and beautiful. /Maugham The Voice of the Turtle/ [1]
E.g. I mean, there’re no wild animals or anything else for that matter except the stranglers. /J. Kellerman
The Web/ [26]

Note: Climax as well as anticlimax may be part of macro-level structure, causing the plot to
develop either climatically or anticlimatically.
ANTITHESIS (or contrast) is a SD consisting of two steps, the lexical meanings of which
stand in opposition. [4, p. 222; 5, p. 63]
E.g. A few seabirds hovered above us, but the sky was inert. /J. Kellerman The Web/ [26]
E.g. Lieutenant David Elliot loved Colonel Jack Kreuter. Lieutenant David Elliot betrayed Colonel Jack
Kreuter. /Joseph R. Garber Vertical Run/ [17]

ASYNDETON is connection between parts of a sentence or between sentences without any

formal sign, when there is a deliberate omission of the connective conjunctions where it is
generally expected to be according to the norms of the literary language [4, p. 226].
E.g. Arthur looked at his watch; it was nine o’clock. (Voynich) [4]
E.g. The policeman took no notice of them; his feet were planted apart on the strip of crimson carpet stretched
across the pavement; his face, under the helmet, wore the same solid, watching look as theirs. (Galsworthy)
[4]

Polysyndeton is a SD of connecting words, sentences or phrases by using connective

conjunctions [4, p. 226].
E.g. The heaviest rain, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect.
(Dickens) [4]

ELLIPSIS is an intentional ommision from the utterance of one or more words that can be
restored by the context. [4, p. 231; 5, p. 68] It imitates the common features of colloquial
language and is characteristic of a dialogue to create the effect of naturalness and authenticity
of lively emotional speech.
E.g. See you tomorrow.
E.g. You say that?
APOSIOPESIS (or Break-in-the-Narrative) is a sudden intentional break in the narration or
dialogue based on the principle of incomplete representation (i.e. what is not finished is
implied) [5, p. 67]. It is graphically marked by dashes and dots.
E.g. You just come home or I'll…[4]
E.g. Good intention but…[4]

QUESTION-IN-THE-NARRATIVE changes the real nature of a question and turns it into

a SD. Normally, questions are asked by one person and expected to be answered by another.
A question-in-the-narrative is asked and answered by one and the same person, usually the
author. It has strong emotional implication and close to a rhetoric question (to which the
answer is not really necessary), because here the answer is not known for sure [4, p. 235].
E.g. How long must it go on? How long must we suffer? Where is the end? What is the end? (Norris) [4]
E.g. Scrooge knew he was dead? Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? Scrooge and he were partners
for I don't know how many years. (Dickens) [4]

REPRESENTED SPEECH is representation of the actual utterance by a second person,

usually the author, as if it had been spoken, whereas it has not really been spoken but is only
represented in the author's words. There is also a SD, called represented speech, which
conveys to the reader the unuttered or inner speech of the character, thus representing his
thoughts and feelings.
Thus I.R. Galperin distinguishes between: uttered represented speech – the author's
representation of the actual speech, and unuttered or inner represented speech – the
representation of the character's thoughts and feelings [4, p. 236].
Uttered represented speech demands that the tense should be switched from the present
to the past and that the personal pronouns should be changed from 1st and 2nd person to 3rd
person as in indirect speech, but the syntactic strucutre of the utterance does not change [4,
p. 238].
E.g. Could he bring a reference from where he now was? He could. /Dreiser/ [4]
E.g. A maid came in now with a blue gown very thick and soft.Could she do anything for Miss Freeland?
No, thanks, she could not, only, did she know where Mr. Freeland's room was? /Galsworthy/ [4]
Unuttered or inner represented speech is a psychological phenomenon; it is very
fragmentary, incoherent, isolated, and consists of separate units which only hints at the
content [4, p. 241].
E.g. An idea had occurred to Soames. His cousin Jolyon was Irene's trustee, the first step would be to go
down and see him at Robin Hill. Robin Hill! The odd -–the very odd feeling those words brought back. Robin
Hill – the house Bosinney had built for him and Irene – the house they had never lived in – the fatal house!
And Jolyon lived there now! H'm! (Galsworthy) [4]
Unlike the uttered represented speech it is usually introduced by verbs of mental
perception (think, meditate, feel, occur, wonder, ask, tell oneself, understand, etc)
E.g. Over and over he was asking himself: would she receive him? Would she recognize him? What should
he say to her? [4]

RHETORICAL QUESTION is a specialstylistic device, whose essence consists in

reshaping the grammatical meaning of the interrogative sentence. I.e. the question is no longer
a question but a statement expressed in the form of an interrogative sentence. Thus there is a
simultaneous interplay of two structural meaning: 1) that of the question and 2) that of the
statement (either affirmative or negative) [4, p. 244].
E.g. Are these the remedies for a starving and desperate populace? [4]

LITOTES is a stylistic device consisting of a peculiar use of negative constructions. The

negation plus noun or adjective serves to establish a positive feature in a person or thing. This
positive feature, however, is diminished in quality as compared with a synonymous
expression making a straightforward assertion of the positive feature. Lets compare the
following two pairs of sentences [4, p. 246]:
E.g. It’s not a bad thing. = It’s a good thing.
E.g. He is no coward. = He is a brave man.
‘Not bad’ is not equal to ‘good’ although the two constructions are synonymous. The same
can be said about the 2nd pair, no coward and ‘a brave man’. In both cases the negative
construction is weaker than the affirmative one. Still we cannot say that the two negative
constructions produce a lesser effect than the corresponding affirmative ones, just on the
contrary. The stylistic effect of litotes depends mainly on intonation.
E.g. He was not without taste. [4]
E.g. It troubled him not a little. [4]
E.g. He found that this was no easy task. [4]

A variant of litotes is a construction with two negations, as in ‘not unlike’, ‘not

unpromising’, not displeased’, etc
Litotes is used in different styles of speech, excluding those, which may be called matter-of-fact styles, official
style and scientific prose